This invention relates to a method and apparatus for making elastic gloves and more particularly for making banded elastic gloves.
In certain types of elastic gloves, it is highly desirable to prevent the cuff portion from rolling downward from the edge to the palm or hand portion during use. For example, in surgical gloves it is important to provide a glove which will not roll. It is also important that the cuff is suitably tensioned to provide a relatively tight fit about the wrist or forearm of the surgeon. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,325,330, a band of elastic rubber stock is applied to the edge portion of the cuff to retard roll-down and provide a reinforcement at the edge. Gloves manufactured in accordance with this patent have cuff bands which differ in color in accordance with glove size to provide a visual indication of the size. However, the use of such bands generally entails the separate manufacture of the bands, such as by making tubing and cutting bands from it, and manual application of the bands to the gloves while the gloves are on glove forms. This method of manufacturing banded gloves is relatively expensive because of the relatively high labor time and costs involved. Also, good adhesion and accurate manual positioning of the band relative to the cuff edge are not always obtained.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,826, surgical gloves are made with colored cuff bands for visual identification of glove size, the band also adding strength to the cuff. In this patent, the glove forms are dipped into a tank of coagulant and then into a tank of latex. The cuff of the glove on the form is then dipped into a second tank of latex to apply the band. The forms are dipped with the cuff down so that the carrier holding the glove forms is necessarily also dipped into the latex. This method results in considerably cleanup problems as well as in waste of material, particularly where a second coagulant dipping is employed between dipping steps.